How Can a Refrigerated Warehouse Be Used to Store Energy?

Abstract

AbstractRefrigerated warehouses are essential for a well-functioning cooling supply chain. Here, the ambient temperature is regulated around the clock, while the refrigeration system is turned on in recuring time intervals. The idea of this paper is to use the refrigerated warehouse as a virtual battery. The temperature inside the warehouse is cooled down when the market price is low. Thus, the energy is stored and the use of the refrigeration system during times of high electrical prices is avoided. This concept can be seen as a part of the demand side management, where monetary incentives are provided to electricity consumers to adapt their load profile in a grid supporting manner. The use case is based on the electricity price of the day-ahead-market. The characteristics of this electricity market require an electricity price prediction. This is based on the availability of renewable energy sources and the predicted electricity demand. The implementation is done via a time-driven discrete simulation model of a real refrigerated warehouse operating in the normal cooling range (above 0 ℃). The simulation models first control option is the use of deterministic strategies which result in a decrease of the electricity cost of up to 7%. The second more complex control option via the so-called solution finding exploits electricity cost savings of 37%. To receive satisfactory results, a highly detailed implementation in the warehouse and well predicted electricity price have proven to be necessary. Therefore, this study can be seen as a first step on the way to use refrigerated warehouses as virtual batteries.KeywordsDemand side managementLoad managementDiscrete simulationRefrigerated warehouseEnergy efficiencyVirtual batteryEnergy storage